Ireland’s defeat from the jaws of victory here in the second Test in the Emirates Airlines Park has not only shifted the momentum towards the Springboks in advance of next Saturday’s decisive third rubber, but it may also have come at a cost, as the Irish management face an anxious wait to discover the extent of Robbie Henshaw’s knee injury while others may emerge.
"It's probably gonna take about 48 hours to be honest," said Joe Schmidt after Saturday's game. "There's certainly plenty of fatigue there. Obviously, Robbie Henshaw copped a knock in the knee. It's a little bit inflamed so it's going to take probably 24 hours for the swelling to go down before we can get a decent look at it. We'll just see how that goes.
“A few of the other guys were getting cramp, which is obviously a temporary thing, but it’s something we’ll want to try to avoid in the next week’s Test.”
Reflecting on a final quarter in which Ireland saw a series-clinching lead of 26-10 ebb away on a tide of 22 unanswered points for the Springboks, the Irish head coach said: “Yeah, they delivered an onslaught that we didn’t quite match up to.
“We missed tackles, we felt a little bit unlucky at times when we weren’t able to make tackles. Again, we’ll probably have a second look at that and we can send a report through but that’s not going to change the result and the result is well and truly earned by the South African ball carriers.
“They really did take it to us and we weren’t quite up the task. That’s incredibly disappointing after being 26-10 ahead within that last quarter and 19-3 up at half-time. We probably just missed a kick just before and after half-time which could have kept our confidence levels up and maybe delivered a little bit more of a blow of a blow to the South African team. But the way they came back, they were relatively irrepressible.
"I think there are some positives for us. I thought Tadhg Furlong was great. Mike Ross certainly wasn't dropped, that's a farce. It was an opportunity for Tadhg to demonstrate what he was capable of doing and I think everybody probably saw he did. He did a super job for us. I thought Quinn Roux gave us 50 minutes of real ballast to the scrum, he got around the park and he made sure that we weren't losing those collisions.
"Some of those guys who came in, Stuart Olding, his first three tackles were really decisive and allowed us to make sure that we could set our defensive line either of him in that tackle area. That's really satisfying in the sense that we're trying to build a squad, but at the same time we're incredibly disappointed with the end result," added a downbeat Schmidt.
Whereas the Springboks move on to Port Elizabeth with a new-found sense of confidence, momentum and, most probably, a better idea of their best team, Ireland face what looks to be a tougher task in re-energising a squad at the end of a 52-week season.
“The players are certainly disappointed. They’re fairly tired in that changing room. Whenever you get the win and get the result, it’s always a lot easier to bounce back even it’s a physically tiring match,” Schmidt said.
“It’ll take us a couple of days probably mentally to get over the anguish of surrendering the lead we had and at the same time trying to work our way back to being fit enough to train fully and build towards next weekend’s Test match.”
Rory Best admitted: "It's very tough to take. I think for large parts for the first two thirds of the game, we did everything we could, we were physical, we got off the line, we held the ball well and I think just to give up that lead, a lot those things which we feel we can control and things we talked about doing, we didn't do."
“They got around the corner, they carried and we started to soak tackles which is something that, even before we left Dublin, we talked about it that if we get physically beaten up by South Africa around the fringes, we’re going to be on the back foot and if you go on the back foot against a team like this you’re going to be struggling.”
Nor, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, was Best inclined to take the altitude factor as an excuse at all. “No, look we have some of the best conditioning staff around in Ireland and in the provinces and we really back our fitness. We talked about it as well, there’s a fair few of the South African players that play their provincial rugby at sea level too so it was same factor for everyone but we won’t be looking for excuses like that.
“We really back our fitness and I think when you look at it, it wasn’t that we were in the wrong position we just, whether it was mentally, just switched off a little bit and stated to soak tackles.
Schmidt also lamented Ireland’s relative profligacy with possession in that decisive last quarter.
“We knew you couldn’t sit on a lead of 19-3 against a team who have the weaponry that South Africa do. That weaponry was in full evidence in that last quarter. When we did have the ball, I thought we took our try with the maul into the corner well, but we gave the ball up too easily.
“The obstruction call just on the 22 metre line, when we had the scrum there, that was really disappointing because it immediately gave access,” said Schmidt in reference to a penalty against the Irish midfielders for crossing inside the last seven minutes when Ireland’s lead had been trimed to 26-22.
“We probably didn’t make a good call in the lineout,” he added in reference to an ensuing Irish throw which was lost. “We got turned over in the lineout which allowed South Africa to keep the pressure on. As much as you might have the intent of playing, you can’t really do it without the ball and it was pretty hard to come by, so to give it back in those instances was really disappointing.”
In this, Schmidt did intimate that he felt playing at altitude had been a factor. “Look, observing from the coaches box we looked like we were tiring. A number of guys did come on, but even last week when we were down to 14 men and we were hanging on towards the end, the players who were in the game have a feel for the game and it sometimes takes them two or three minutes to find their feet.
“A couple of guys came on and missed tackles, but again they contributed well at set-piece. I thought Finlay Bealham came on and did well at set-piece. It’s just incredibly frustrating and disappointing that we didn’t quite hang in when the opportunity was there.”
As for the sizeable hill Ireland now have to scale this week, Best added: “It’s incredibly frustrating and disappointing, but we know now that it’s one-all. We go to Port Elizabeth with a chance to win a Test series over here. I think the important thing over the next 24 hours is that we have to take this loss on the chin, you sometimes have to let these losses dwell in you a little bit and come out the other side stronger.”
“We’ll look back and I’m sure there’s a lot of boys in that changing-room who won’t be looking forward to the review come Monday morning.But it’s something that we know as a squad and a team that that’s what makes you stronger, it’s learning from that and knowing that, if we get ourselves in that position next week, we don’t make the same errors we did this week.”
